Vet Tells Clinton She ‘Corrupted National Security’

A Navy veteran cornered Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at Wednesday night’s Commander in Chief forum with a question that cut to the heart of her email scandal.

Retired Navy Lt. John Lester, who flew P-3 Orion aircraft in the Desert Storm and Desert Shield operations, noted that he was no stranger to classified information.

“As a naval flight officer, I held a top secret sensitive compartmentalized information clearance. And that provided me access to materials and information highly sensitive to our war-fighting capabilities,” he said.

Related Stories

After sharing his background, he noted how an average person would be punished for violating the rules.

“Had I communicated this information not following prescribed protocols, I would have been prosecuted and imprisoned,” he said.

He then aimed at Clinton’s competence.

Advertisement - story continues below

“Secretary Clinton, how can you expect those such as myself who were and are entrusted with America’s most sensitive information to have any confidence in your leadership as president when you clearly corrupted our national security?”

Clinton responded by repeating the contention, long disproved by the FBI, that she never communicated about classified information through her private email system.

” … what we have here is the use of an unclassified system by hundreds of people in our government to send information that was not marked, there were no headers, there was no statement, top secret, secret, or confidential.

Trending Stories

“I communicated about classified material on a wholly separate system,” she said.

Clinton, who according to FBI documents released last week did not understand what the markings on a document meant that labeled it as classified, then gave Lester a brief lecture on how classified material is marked.

“There is a header so that there is no dispute at all that what is being communicated to or from someone who has that access is marked classified,” she told him.

As proof of her zeal for guarding classified information, she said she went to extra lengths to ensure no prying eyes would ever saw classified documents

“When I traveled, I went into one of those little tents that I’m sure you’ve seen around the world because we didn’t want there to be any potential for someone to have embedded a camera to try to see whatever it is that I was seeing that was designated, marked, and headed as classified,” she said.

The style, as well as the substance, of her reply offended some observers.

“Hillary shows her true colors right there in that brief clip — not only how she looks down on our men and women in uniform, but the American people (clearly, commoners in her eyes) in general,” Jesse wrote.

“How can our military be expected to look up to her as their commander in chief with her obvious disdain for both our nation’s protocol and its people in general?” she added.